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Some foods can kill you, and it turns out that a good night’s sleep can do it too–IF you use sleeping pills. According to a recent study, patients taking prescription sleep aids on a regular basis were nearly five times as likely as non-users to die over a period of two and a half years, and even people who took fewer than 20 pills a year were at risk. They were also more likely to develop cancer. Americans filled 60 million prescriptions for sleeping pills last year, up from 47 million in 2006.
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In a recent NASA satellite survey of Egypt, archaeologists discovered 17 pyramids that had been buried in the sand, as well as more than 1,000 tombs and 3,000 ancient settlements. Ground level excavations have already confirmed the existence of two of the pyramids. Ancient Egyptian buildings were made of mud brick, which is denser than the sand surrounding them, which allowed the satellites to spot the buried shapes. The scientists think that, using satellites, they may eventually discover an entire lost city.
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You may be eating and drinking some odd things in the future. There is striking new evidence that green, or unroasted, coffee beans can produce a substantial decrease in body weight in a relatively short period of time. Drinking coffee doesn’t do it–you have to eat the beans. And here’s another odd cure: Other research suggests that ingestion of components of afterbirth or placenta may offer benefits to mothers and maybe even to non-mothers and males.
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Why do we get the flu in the winter? It’s basically because cold air and central heating both try out our nasal passages, so that we can’t "catch" viruses before they get into our body and make us sick. Flu season can begin as early as October, and it usually ends in March or sometimes not until April. The average flu death rate per season is around 12,000.

This has been an especially light flu season: For every patient who was hospitalized this season, 22 people were hospitalized during the 2010-11 flu season. The reason for this may be global warming.
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